Gays and lesbians in Arizona are celebrating a long-fought victory.

Gov. Janet Napolitano signed an executive order last weekend that forbids discrimination based on sexual orientation in state agencies.

“We’re ecstatic,” said Kathie Gummere of the Arizona Human Rights Fund. “It’s one more step forward for us in gaining the rights that everyone else takes for granted.”

Napolitano’s executive order makes it illegal for the state to hire, fire, promote or discipline any state employee based on the individual’s sexual orientation.

“To the people of Arizona, I say, ‘Welcome to a new Arizona,’” Napolitano told 1,000 people June 21 at the Arizona Human Rights Fund dinner at the Arizona Biltmore.

For at least five years the Human Rights Fund, a GLBT support organization, has unsuccessfully tried to encourage similar legislation because of the high number of complaints about workplace bias.

While supporters gave Napolitano a standing ovation, not everyone applauded.

“She’s governing like she’s a third world dictator; it’s ridiculous,” said Len Munsil, president of the Center for Arizona Policy, a conservative Christian organization.

The Center for Arizona Policy has been instrumental in lobbying to block equal opportunity law language changes in the past. Now, the group plans to look at ways to reverse the new order, Munsil said.

Tim Nelson, Napolitano’s general counsel, said the order covers executive-branch agencies, boards and commissions but not the courts, the Legislature or the university system. The universities are overseen by the Arizona Board of Regents.

Two days before committing suicide, a man convicted of torching an abortion clinic and three synagogues wrote a letter confessing that he killed a Happy Valley couple, according to a newspaper report.

Benjamin Matthew Williams, who sent the letter to his brother’s attorney just two days before he killed himself in his jail cell, reportedly wrote that he wanted to “forgo a jury trial and rather plead guilty” to charges he killed gay couple Gary Matson and Winfield Mowder.

Shasta County Superior Court Judge William Gallagher unsealed Williams’ last known statements about the case June 17, which were written Nov. 15.

“It is an accepted fact that I did committ-perform all the acts/charges and also that I am as good as convicted, thus I end my legal facade and accept the inevitable,” Williams, 34, wrote in the letter to attorney John Webster.

Williams and his brother, James Tyler Williams, 33, were accused of killing Mowder, 40, and Matson, 50, in their Happy Valley home in 1999. After his brother’s death, James Williams pleaded guilty to the murder charges and was sentenced to 28 years in life in prison.

School employees in Manchester, Connecticut, and a gay rights group have accused the town’s board of education of violating state law by failing to provide health insurance for same-sex partners.

A complaint was filed recently with the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities.

Bill Brindamour, an elementary school principal, said he is unable to obtain health insurance for his partner.

“My non-gay and married colleagues are able to protect their families, but the board is preventing me from doing the same thing,” he said in a statement.

The complaint accused the board of education of using an employee’s marital status as a basis for providing health insurance.

The government has seized more than 132,000 bottles of a dietary supplement promoted with allegedly deceptive claims it could cure hundreds of diseases, including AIDS and cancer, federal regulators said.

The Federal Trade Commission announced charges against two companies it said made false and unsubstantiated claims about the health benefits and safety of the supplement, Seasilver. U.S. marshals took possession of the supplement stocks June 17 at the request of the Food and Drug Administration.

The FTC said the Carlsbad, California.-based companies, Americaloe Inc. and Seasilver USA Inc., promoted the liquid supplement as a safe treatment or cure for 650 diseases, including AIDS, Lyme disease, various cancers and diabetes in nine out of 10 patients.

The companies’ owners, the principal distributor and a person who claimed to be an expert were also charged with making false and unsubstantiated claims about the health benefits and safety of Seasilver.

The FTC said the companies promoted the supplement with national television and radio infomercials, websites, spam e-mails and a 28-page brochure.

The government has approved the first once-a-day protease inhibitor to treat HIV.

Protease inhibitors are a powerful type of drug that revolutionized HIV care in the mid-1990s. While they’re not a cure, protease inhibitors taken together with older AIDS medicines suppress HIV enough to allow many patients to stay far healthier for years longer.

But these so-called drug cocktails require swallowing handfuls of pills several times a day.

The newest protease inhibitor, Reyataz, requires just a once-daily dose of two pills, taken with food — plus whatever older medications patients take as part of their daily cocktail.

Six other protease inhibitors already are sold, but require taking several pills two or three times a day.

The Food and Drug Administration approved use of Reyataz as part of combination HIV therapy on June 20. Manufacturer Bristol-Myers Squibb said the drug, known chemically as atazanavir, would hit pharmacy shelves in the United States next month.

A common side effect of other protease inhibitors is a rise in cholesterol — and for some reason, Reyataz so far doesn’t appear to cause that problem, the FDA said.

The mother of a middle school pupil who wore a “Barbie is a Lesbian” T-shirt to class sued the city June 19, saying her daughter was humiliated and harassed by schoolmates and staff because she is a lesbian and is open about her sexual orientation.

Kathleen Hodges accused the city of failing to protect her daughter, Natalie Young, 14, at Middle School 210 in Ozone Park, Queens, according to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

The lawsuit sought unspecified damages and a court order barring the school from suspending Young for wearing a T-shirt that said “Barbie is a Lesbian” and forcing the school to establish policies to protect gay pupils.

City lawyers had not seen the lawsuit and could not comment, said Kate O’Brien Ahlers, a spokesperson for the city law office.

According to the lawsuit, Natalie was 13 years old when a teacher laughed at her and called her T-shirt inappropriate in front of other pupils, before summoning a vice principal, who made her change shirts.

The lawsuit alleged that the incident was one of a series of moments when she was discriminated against by school staff and schoolmates.

A new flagpole outside Lakewood City Hall enables the Cleveland suburb to avoid flying a gay-pride flag below the U.S. flag.

“We are trying to be responsive to the gay community,” said Mayor Madeline Cain.

The Lakewood City Council agreed two weeks ago to fly the rainbow-hued banner to recognize Lakewood’s gay community and emphasize the value of diversity.

Councilmember Denis Dunn said he expected the banner to fly on the same pole as the U.S. flag and a banner commemorating American prisoners of war.

Since then, Cain said her office had been inundated with calls of protest.

Cain described the new pole as an inspiration that will allow the city to fly flags from ethnic groups and others who seek special recognition.

“Let’s preserve the dedicated pole for the U.S. flag and the POW flag,” Cain said.

After a two-year free speech battle, the city council of Oklahoma City has officially decided to allow banners to fly from city light poles without restricting sponsors’ messages.

In the summer of 2001, banners for gay pride festivities were removed from the poles and council members approved a policy that prohibited the display of banners to promote social advocacy or religious messages.

A member of a gay rights group that opposed the old policy applauded the recent decision.

“It’s a turnaround,” said Bill Rogers, past president of the Cimarron Alliance, which sued the city over its previous policy. “I think it’s a real victory for the city.”